The AFL believes combating binge drinking may be a key factor in reducing illicit drug use by players.
AFL chief executive Andrew Demetriou admitted the league and clubs may have “dropped the ball” on alcohol as they concentrated on policing harder drugs such as cocaine, ice and ecstasy.
Binge drinking and its effects emerged as a key concern at Wednesday’s drugs summit, attended by the AFL, all 18 club chief executives and medical experts.
AFL medical officer Hugh Seward says 96 per cent of those found to have tested positive for illicit drugs did so while drinking alcohol, suggesting an obvious overlap of the problems.
“I think we’ve probably dropped the ball as a code whilst concentrating on illicit drugs, whilst concentrating on respect and responsibility and all the things we try to do with these policies,” Demetriou said.
“This is an area that we need to work harder on.”
Collingwood chief executive Gary Pert said experts had told the summit if clubs could ensure their players used alcohol responsibly, it would eliminate the majority of them using illicit drugs.
“We saw the presentation today that in 90 per cent of cases where players are using drugs, alcohol is the lead-in to that,” Pert said.
“The alcohol leads to that behaviour – they’re not in isolation.”
Currently under the three-strikes drugs policy, club hierarchy are only told when a player has tested positive to drugs for the third time.
Pert said clubs believed they could play a more proactive role in helping players with drugs issues.
But he warned it would take time for clubs to arm themselves with the expertise they needed to provide the right help for players in crisis.
“The clubs out of their discussions are very clear they see that they can play a role if they have certain amounts of information at appropriate times,” Pert said.
“Sometimes you have got to be a bit careful in what you ask for. You’ve need to be trained and educated and prepared to deal with that information.
“These are things you can’t decide overnight, press a button and roll out.”
